THE AMERICAN WEST

Click on the pictures to see the video. There are other links in the narrative to relevant web pages.

We flew into Denver airport, hired a car, and drove through the Rockies on Interstate 70, passing through the Eisenhower Tunnel, under the continental divide 1600 feet above. On the other side of Colorado State, we turned off the Interstate and took a scenic diversion following the I128 alongside the Colorado River through Professor Valley, which joined the main road just south of Arches National Park. We naturally paid the Park a visit, and then carried on south,  Please note, if you feel the need for a beer after a long days drive, most of the towns in Utah are 'dry'.

This is not a video link

We carried on through the Navajo Indian reservation and Painted Desert, reaching Flagstaff in the evening of our third day of travelling. Next morning, bright and early, we set off for the Grand Canyon - actually earlier than we thought, as Arizona is a different time zone, and we hadn't changed our watches. We spent the whole day there.

We travelled north again, making a short visit to Bryce National Park, and it's unusual rock formations, called hoodoos, then  up to the Interstate, where we turned right and headed  back to Colorado, taking in the Colorado National Monument on our way.

We did make a trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park while we were there.

We spent the night in Blanding, and next day visited the Goosenecks of the San Juan River, before arriving at Monument Valley.

The next day we set off north again into Utah reaching Zion National Park by the late afternoon. We spent the whole of the following day in Zion park. It is a great place to walk in, you feel part of it, unlike the Grand Canyon, where most visitors can only look.

The journey through the Western National parks took us a week, and we spent our second week in Keystone Resort, near Loveland Pass, in Colorado, right next to the continental divide, lazing about.